Projects by the Numbers...

All of my projects to share today seem to have a number theme...

Reason #157
"Why it's good to be a girl: When your blanket isn't handy, your dress will do as a good substitute."


Day 13
...for Rhonna's {21} day challenge.



Day 14
...for Rhonna's {21} day challenge.


smiles,
Christi

Catching up on tags...

I love tags! I think that they are tons of fun and a really great way to get to know more about the friends that we "know" online. BUT I am really lousy at tags! LOL! I am forever forgetting to do them and then I never know who to tag back so this morning I am playing Tag Catch-Up.

ETA: Thanks Mom! This is what happens when you do these things before you (meaning me) have the full allowance of coffee. :p

This morning I was tagged by Alison Gibbs to post 7 random things about myself. hmmmm, this is tough! LOL!

1. I am terrified of things that are tiny and jump...grasshoppers, crickets, frogs...anything that could jump at me is a really bad thing.

2. I never, EVER wear shorts. I carry all my weight in my legs and lets just say that it isn't a pretty sight.

3. In the last 20 years (my adult life), I have lived in 16 different homes in 7 different places...Texas, Oklahoma (2 different towns so we count it twice), New Mexico, New Jersey, England, and North Carolina. That's a lot of cleaning out of closets!

4. There are days when I eat nothing but cookie dough all day long (should I really be admitting that?!?!)

5. Contrary to #4, I am a lifetime member of Weight Watchers. Five years ago, I lost approximately 35 lbs with them and, until I got pregnant, was pretty good at keeping it off for all that time. Right now I am about 15 lbs above my goal weight, but I am working on it.

6. One of my favorite things to do is have tea...I like hot tea, but am more of a coffee drinker, but I just love the ritual and beauty of drinking hot tea. I feel like I am spoiling myself when I drink hot tea...

7. I would love to write a book. I have actually even started a few over my lifetime...maybe one of these days, I will actually finish one. BTW, fiction or non-fiction, it doesn't matter...I have both started.

Now for the Name Game tag. I was tagged by several people on this one:
1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) - Blondie XTerra* (fixed now!!LOL! I don't think Pierre Xterra would work...scary name!)

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) - Chocolate Chipperdoodle (hmmmm, that just doesn't sound too threatening does it?!? LOL!)

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) - C Sno

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) - Red Cat

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) - Gayle Guymon

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) - Sno Ch

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put “The") - The Purple Coffee

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) - Jack Raymond

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Odyssey Nips (LOL! I think that I should hang onto that one, don't you?!?)

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Ruth Miles

And since I am so bad about doing tags, I won't put anyone else through the guilt of being tagged. If you want to play along, please do so and come let us know.

smiles,
christi

Family updates....

1. Little Bit here is getting VERY close to starting to move/scootch around. I have no idea how I will ever get anything done when that happens!?!
2. She has taken to where she REALLY likes her own voice. When she starts getting tired she will holler at the top of her lungs. She isn't crying...just yelling. It's about to drive me batty!

3. Last night was Jacob's open house. All of his teachers said that he has shown them pictures of Kat so they were happy to see her in person. You have to love that he loves her so much! BTW, they also said that he is doing REALLY well in school...Yay!

4. Today is game #2 for the team. Unfortunately, they lost the first game and he didn't get to play. We are hoping that is changing on both accounts today. BTW, today's is an away game which means a different uniform (and it actually fits, unlike his home game uniform shown here!) An aside for mom & dad...I keep forgetting to tell you ...his school are the Bulldogs with Blue & White as the school colors. I thought that was pretty cool!
5. Not so excited about the fact that he came home last night with his arm bruised where he had been punched during soccer practice. Finger lines were visible...not too sure that I am liking Jr. High!

Days 11 & 12 and another card...

Good morning! I have found that this week has been really busy so I haven't had the time to really experiment with my pages in my 21-day art journal like I would have liked. After today, it should calm back down so maybe I can get back to it...

Here is Day 11. Jeanne is one of the other participants in the {21} day challenge and she has been creating a gorgeous journal in shades of blue that I just love. It inspired me to pull out my Basic Grey Periphery papers that I hadn't yet touched for this entry.


My Day 12 entry is just a hodge-podge of stuff and journaling. Yesterday was my first really challenging day during this journey. I totally blew my WW points and I think that the page reflects that in some way...it just doesn't flow together as well as I would like and I definitely think that it is all interconnected. My life wasn't where it should be so my art didn't flow right either...interesting, isn't it? And it could be a matter of the fact that I knew that the day was a bust, which changes my view on the artwork for the day...


One last little piece of art to share. This is a card that I made using the CPS #32 Sketch. I used some of the older Scenic Route papers and some more of the Inque Boutique stamps (the bird). The sentiment is from Catslife Press. I think that this card could easily become a Christmas card just by adding a holiday sentiment.


smiles,
christi

CPS/Cardmaker Contest...

This card is one that I have made for the current CPS/Cardmaker contest using the CPS sketch. One of the choices for theme was patriotic so I went with that. The papers here are Daisy D's, as well as the card and frame. The quote on the card says, "The world knows little about its greatest heroes." I thought that was appropriate for a patriotic theme and could see sending this card to a soldier that is downrange. The chipboard is Heidi Swapp. The buttons are a mix of Daisy D's and Autumn Leaves. That star stamp is Purple Onion Designs. I had fun with this one!
smiles,
christi

Half-way there...

It's day 11 of the {21} Day Challenge. We are halfway through the challenge and I am so happy with how it is going. I have stuck with all three parts of my personal challenge which is a rare thing for me. The only thing that I am slightly discouraged about is the Weight Watchers points. I have only had one day where I went over my points (by 4 points) and with the flex plan that should have been okay because I haven't been using any of my flex points, but I haven't seen any results with regards to my scale or clothes. I think that it may be time to switch up my diet... I tend to eat the same things every day. I am also breastfeeding so that may be affecting my results too. But I am feeling better so for right now, I am satisfied.

Thanks, everyone, for the supportive words about my Day 8 page. I know that it is good for me to experiment and I have left it alone, but for the next couple of days, I went back to a little more my style of pages.

Day 9:

Rhonna's quote for this entry was, "Our minds are as different as our faces; we are all traveling to one destination; happiness; but few are going by the same road." Charles Caleb Colton

So I did a bit of journaling about the support that I have received from the other participants in the challenge. Click on the image to read it. And I had to include another one of those super-cute stamps from Burnt Cookie.

Day 10:
For this entry, I was inspired by the fact that we are officially in the autumn season.


Finally another layout using Scenic Route papers and Inque Boutique stamps. The layout is based on the Pencil Lines Sketch #51 from this week. My parents have this great little fishing pond in their backyard which we always love fishing in when we go to visit. Take a look at the size of that catfish that Jacob pulled out of it the last time that we were there...


I have lots of little projects working right now so maybe I will have time today to get some of them done to share...
smiles,
christi

Welcome to the First Day of Autumn! & Day 8

Autumnal View from Warwick Castle, England
Autumn is definitely my favorite season. I love the changing leaves, the crispness in the air, the ability to wear more clothes (I love my sweaters), the coming of Halloween, the wonderful autumn spicy smells, Spiced Pumpkin Lattes...it's all good! Of course, here today it is supposed to be in the mid-90's so we will just pretend that we are having autumnal weather as we sit under the air conditioning. :)

Cambridge, England


Outer Wall of Warwick Castle, England

And now onto the art...
This is an example of experimentation gone too far past my comfort zone. LOL! I am trying to challenge myself a bit artistically while working in my art journal for the 21-day challenge. So yesterday I decided to get down and messy with paints, glaze, stamping, and bits of paper from mags/books. This is my result. I can't say that I am particularily happy with it and even thought about re-doing it, but decided that went against my goal of trying to stretch myself so I am leaving it alone and will be doing something a bit more "my" style today!


And along the lines of just my style, here is my latest layout. These are photos from the summer of DS with my Dad "just hanging". I used my feature products, Inque Boutique stamps and Scenic Route papers.

smiles,
Christi

Cards (CPS) & Day 7...

Kat had a rough afternoon yesterday after receiving her 4 month shots so I never made it on to upload my journal. I sat and cuddled with her instead. She continues to run a low-grade fever today, but so far is just sleeping...poor little thing.

But here is my journal page from yesterday. I don't do messy very well so I wanted to try something more along the lines of a traditional art journal page which tends to be a bit messier. Of course, you know by now that with anything I do, it has to incorporate stamping so I used a couple of my new girl stamps from the Burnt Cookie Etsy store. I love all of these stamps. They have such an air of self-confidence and fun about them...which is one of my overall goals with this project...basically feeling really good about myself and what I am accomplishing. The other stamp (the swirls) is one of the Inque Boutique stamps. The papers are Scenic Route (green) and Anna Griffin (pink). The quote artwork is Rhonna's design which she created specifically for the {21} Day Challenge.

I have also been working on a few cards using this week's featured products (Scenic Route papers & Inque Boutique stamps.)

Here is the first. I had originally made this for the CPS/Cardmaker contest and then read the fine print about the contest and realized that it didn't fit the theme. Oh well!


This card is made using the CPS Sketch #31. Again these are Scenic Route papers and the little bit stamped in between the sections is actually a bird stamp from Inque Boutique.


I haven't gotten to create today's art page yet. We will see how Kat is feeling as to whether or not it gets done. So hopefully I will be back later with more to share.

I hope that you are having a creative weekend! Don't forget that CMK has the whole store 25% off this weekend. You deserve a fun treat!
smiles,
christi

Things to Share & Day 6...

The {21} day challenge with Rhonna is going well, but I can feel my enthusiasm waning a bit. From doing this before, I know that this is normal at around this time in the challenge and that I just have to push through it and remember why I am doing this. It probably doesn't help that my list of things to get done gets a bit longer every day...maybe I need to re-adjust how much I think that I can get done in a day a bit.

But now back to my art journal layout for today. I combined my art journal artwork with an art inspiration challenge that I am participating in. Here is the original art piece...
For my interpretation of it, I turned it on it's side. I basically copied all the spacial relations in the original piece. I also tried to emulate the shadowing on the original piece. The papers on this are Daisy D's, Bohemia, and Inspirations. I am also trying to push my art a bit with each piece so for this one, I played a bit with a transparency. I just got in this stamp from the Etsy site that I was talking about yesterday and I stamped her using StazOn onto the transparency. I then stamped her again on the red/white polkadot paper and cut out the hat and pants and layered them behind the transparency. I have never done that before, but I think that it turned out pretty cool-looking!


I love the scrapjack site and haven't been able to play as often as I would like, but I was instantly inspired by this week's layout by Sarah Bowen. This was a photo taken by Jim over the summer when we were at a baseball game. It's a great photo of pretty much everyone (we won't count the little ones) which is a miracle unto itself.

These are some more digital papers...Crazy Beautiful by Mindy Terasawa.

Just a couple of other tidbits to share... Create My Keepsake has the entire store 25% off for the next 3 days and they have all the most recent stuff (at least the stuff that hasn't already sold out.) Go check it out!

Have you seen the new Halloween line that Scenic Route is coming out with???

Isn't it lush? Layle Koncar who works with Scenic Route did a drawing on her blog and drew for 13 random winners...I was one of the lucky 13...I have this whole line headed towards my door. Whoohooo!

BTW, it is really cloudy today so I had to scan rather than take photos...I will probably replace these scans with photos if I can get better shots tomorrow.
smiles,
christi

Crazy Busy & Days 4-5...

Wow! This week has been so busy. I definitely have more than the normal activities going on, but I am also staying super-busy trying to not procrastinate and checking off my lists every day. Which is actually going really well. Yesterday, I flat ran out of day, but it wasn't because I was wasting time or putting things off until later, so that is acceptable. That means, though, that today has been catch-up day...

Here are the last two days' journal entries:
Day 4...I played with some drawing (the girl is drawn from a stamp example from this Etsy shop) and watercolor pencils...definitely not techniques that I use very much anymore so an art journal is a good place to try out those rusty techniques.


Day 5...more hybrid stuff...Everything is computer generated (Katie Pertiet from www.designerdigitals.com) except the corrugated cardboard and this is the first time that I have used it on an art project.


I am seriously behind on visiting the blogs, but that is on my list of things to do tomorrow. :)
smiles,
christi

Day 3 Accomplished

Whew! My list of things to do today was REALLY LONG, but as of 9:30, I only have 2 things left on it...to blog and to look up an email. Wow! I did everything on my list and I can guarantee you that I probably would not have done about 2/3's of what was on my list if it hadn't been for this challenge. I would have just put it off til tomorrow. I also stayed within my WW points and created today so it was another successful day. YAY! I love the motivation that these challenges provide. Thanks Rhonna!!!

For my journal page today, I used the quote art that Rhonna provided and just did a little bit of playing with my Glaze pens. I have never really used these before so this was another new experiment for me. The papers are K&Co-Amy Butler (pink) and Scenic Route (green) and of course, some Heidi Swapp chipboard (I am going to have a problem if she ever stops making those!!!)

I did a play on the word adventure from the quote. The page says:
Achieve goals
Dare to do more
Value time
Enjoy a more fulfilled life
Nurture self
Take advantage of moments
Unveil a new me
Re-discover an organized life
Example for the kids

I also have a couple of layouts to share. This first one is using my week's featured products (Scenic Route papers & Inque Boutique stamps) and of course, those Heidi Swapp alphas again. The photos are from an Aviation Boot Camp that Jacob attended over the summer in Midland.


This layout of Kat is my first hybrid layout. All the patterned papers are from the Holly McCraig/CMK digi kit. So much fun!!! Other supplies used: Cloud 9 brads, Heidi Swapp chipboard, and Bazzill cardstock. I used Valerie Salmon's sketch for last week to create this layout.


My list is already long for tomorrow so I better go and look up that email and then get some rest. Until tomorrow...
smiles,
christi

Day 2 & The Photo That Got Away...

Yay, it is already day 2 of Rhonna's {21} Day Challenge. I have to say that yesterday went really well for me. I did everything that I planned to do and stayed within my points. YAY! Hopefully today will go as well.

One part of the create everyday part of my goal is to try new things in my creating. One of those things that I have been wanting to try is hybrid scrapping. I was on a DT for a short time with Cindy Gilchrist and I was always amazed at the actual projects (not digital) that she made with digital kits. So this morning when I was up at 5:00 am with nothing to do, but play on the computer, I got inspired and made a quick trip over to Designer Digitals and downloaded a few kits. Today's layout for my art journal is done using the papers that I printed here this morning from the Elegant Evening kit by Dana Zarling.


Last night before I went to bed I was sitting reading Pretty Little Things by Sally Jean Alexander which always inspires me, but I have never had the courage to try one of these cute little charms. Well, today when I finished my page, it occurred to me that maybe I could scan it and make it fit into a microscope slide. Voila! Something else that I have never tried before. Uh oh...I see two new facets to my hobby developing quickly!


And now to focus on my next product grouping. This week I am going to be working with my Scenic Route papers and my new Inque Boutique stamps. Of course, I will be working with other things too esp. with the art journal, but that will be where my main focus for creating will be this week. I am not narrowing it down to specific lines because I want to have my freedom to play with these awesome groups of products.

Which brings me to my latest layout...The Photo that Got Away. I love this photo! Everyone is smiling. It was a spur of the moment photo. They all purely coincidentally are dressed in matching clothes. I love it EXCEPT it's freaking BLURRY!! Auuughhhh! You have to hate that, but I decided to scrap it anyway. Papers are Scenic Route, stamps are Inque Boutique, chipboard is Heidi Swapp.


I hope everyone is having a fabulous Sunday. I am off to watch the race, cuddle with Kat, and create another layout!
smiles,
christi

Rhonna's {21} Day Challenge- Day 1

Today is day 1 of Rhonna's {21} Day Challenge. For this challenge, I actually have two journals. The large one is my art journal and the small is my list journal where I will keep my daily to-do lists and food journal lists.


The premise behind the 21 day challenge is that it takes 21 days to make something a habit and my habit that I want to change/create is actually a 3-parter which I explain on my opening page of the art journal.

My goals are that I want to:
1. Make a to-do list everyday and get it done. No procrastinating!
2. Eat Healthy! Keep a daily food journal & stay within my WW points.
3. Create everyday and try new things creatively. Experiment. Have fun!

And my Day 1 page is focusing on the Why it is important for me to focus on these goals which obviously focuses on my kids "Because these two deserve better. They deserve a more organized, cleaner life. They deserve a mom that is still going to be around in 20 years because of a healthier lifestyle. They also deserve a sane mom & mom keeps her sanity by creating everyday.

The supplies used on this page are: the quote provided by Rhonna for the challenge, Daisy D's paper, Heidi Swapp's bling, and Inque Boutique yummy stamps.
smiles,
christi

Art in my Life (part II)

So we have established that I am a linear thinker. What kind of artists inspire a linear thinker? Well, for me, they are the artists that do the total opposite of me. LOL! I can't do what they do so, for me, it is totally inspiring to examine their process and hope that a little of that sinks into the creative side of my brain. Hey, a girl can always hope, right? :)

My favorite artist of all time is probably Monet. I LOVE impressionism. It boggles my very linear mind that you can add all these little dabs of paint and end up with such glorious, romantic works of art where you can actually tell what they are...*without any lines*.
The Luncheon by Monet
He is one of my favorites because so many of his paintings are from one of my favorite places in this world, France. He has also done an entire series on Normandy and I have actually stood in so many of those same places and seen the vignettes that he has painted. That is so cool and makes his work more personal to me.

But I do love most of the impressionists. Renoir also falls into that grouping. His paintings have such a depth of color that is amazing to me. His paintings also tend to feature women which I love and really admire having spent most of my college career trying to draw/paint women's figures.
Two Sisters on a Terrace by Renoir

Along the lines of artists that feature women, another favorite of mine is Waterhouse. I really like the era that he paints from and the quality of the work that he puts into the flows of a woman's dress. You can feel the breeze blowing when you look at his paintings.
Boreas by Waterhouse

I really love most pieces that feature France, romantic subjects, and really anything that falls in the more feminine realm of beauty. One of my favorite series ever is this one by Vettriano. I really need to do some research on him as an artist because I don't know anything about him or any other works that he has painted. I just know that everytime I see one of these prints from this dancing beach series, that I just love them and that is mainly because of the subject matter.
Singing Butler by Vettriano

Those are my favorites from the artists that are no longer with us. Now we move on to the artists that are still alive and creating.

Several years ago, we lived in Oklahoma City and one of our favorite events was the Prix de West art show at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum every year. In 2001, the winner for the event, Morgan Weistling, blew me away with his paintings. This piece is the one that won the event, but he had several pieces entered and every time I saw one hanging on a wall, it would stop me short with the incredible beauty and depth. I LOVE HIS WORK!! Go check out his website because his gallery of work is definitely awe inspiring.
The Dance by Weistling

As you all know, I am a papercrafts artist, and as such, I have to touch on my favorites in this area too. As far as overall artists in the papercrafts field, my absolute favorite has to be Sharon. I had to laugh yesterday when I posted how I am a linear thinker. Sharon was my first commenter (and unbeknownst to her that I was going to be including her in today's post) and her comment was, "... I'm going to have to find out what a linear thinker is. I don't think I understand." LOL! That is exactly why I love her art. She creates incredible layers of paint, tissue, drawings, etc into these gorgeous works of art. And even better, she goes through her creative process on her blog so that those of us that don't think that way, can hope to channel some of her brilliance. I received this piece of mail art from her this week and even DH was blown away by the gorgeous look of it.
Mail Art by Sharon

When it comes to scrapbooking, I have so many favorites, but I am blown away every time I see a piece by CD Muckosky. She was last year's CK Scrapbooker of the Year and she has such a creative way of putting her products together that would never occur to me. I love the distinctive look to her scrapbooking and her super-creative style.

For cardmaking, I am a huge fan of Lilybean (Melissa Phillips). Out of all the artists that I have talked about today, her style is probably the closest to mine. She creates GORGEOUS shabby, romantic cards with piles of layers and depth to them.

And now you know, my favorite artists.

I will be back later today with a post about Rhonna's {21} day challenge because it starts today!!! Yippeee!!!

smiles,
Christi

Art in my Life (part 1)...

This is probably going to be a long, rambling post so you may want to skip reading my blog today. :) oh, and eta, the first 2 photos in this entry are not my work...I copied them off the internet.

Alison had asked me who my favorite artist is...well, for me that is not just a simple question because I admire so many artists. But first about me and my art history so that you will understand my choices.

I have always loved the creating process. I remember sewing together pieces of fabric leftover from my mom's sewing scraps by hand when I was around 5 years old. I didn't create anything worth having, but I remember being amazed that I could actually take all these little pieces and making something new out of them.

Then I had a friend in 6th grade who drew everyday and she drew really well! She taught me how to look at something that someone else had drawn and copy it. I remember all that year taking the Current card catalog and I would copy the drawings of animals that were on the cards. This was a pivotal time for me in my life because this was the year before you had to choose your elective (for life) for the 7th grade. Up until this point, I had always planned on playing the clarinet in the band, but suddenly I had this interest in art and switched gears and chose art as my elective instead.


Let me just interject here and say that I really was never very good at actual art (my parents still have evidence of that hanging on their office wall!?!) I could re-create a resonably facsimile of someone else's art, but for me to sit down and draw myself...not so much! LOL! And I knew that back then too.


In 8th grade, I did a report on gothic architecture and discovered that drawing with a ruler was MUCH easier and so I quickly switched gears to focus my life towards a career in architecture. I took every drafting class available in high school and I will tell you, that is where I can excel. My brain was made for drafting (going along with my love for creating, I am also pretty good in math.)

I went to Texas Tech as an architecture major and quickly discovered that while I can draft all day, architecture still requires you to have a really creative/artistic brain and that I was never going to pass if I continued on this route (I made a "D" on my museum project that I had worked my butt off all semester creating because it wasn't creative enough.) So I went home for Christmas break and scrambled to find a new major for the Spring semester. My requirement for my new major was that it not involve having to take a foreign language (LOL! what a way to decide what you will do for the rest of your life!)

All through high school, I had worked in fabric stores as a part-time job. I also made pretty much everything that I wore so I ended up choosing a degree called Clothing & Textiles which was a cross between merchandising and fashion design. As such, I continued to take art classes all through college in the form of fashion design classes. I never did really get any better at the art aspect, although I did have flashes of brilliance like this piece that was praised for it's realistic looking sequins (created using a paperclip to apply the paint.)

Again I was better at the more linear projects like pattern making. A pattern maker is one of those people that takes the drawing from the fashion designer (that's done the creative work) and drafts a pattern to make the garment. That's what I "planned" to do with my degree, but instead I got married after graduation and moved to a little town called Altus, Oklahoma which is definitely not the mecca of the fashion world. I quickly discovered that most Air Force bases (which is where DH was going to be dragging me for the next 18 years) are in little bitty towns in the middle of nowhere (thus they have good airspace!) so I decided to have babies rather than have a career.

The point of this story so far??? LOL! Sorry to be so long-winded, but the point is that while I have always loved art and tried to become artistic, I am a linear thinker rather than an artistic one. (and I AM NOT fishing for complements here!!! I am aware that I have some creative inklings...otherwise I couldn't do what I do. They just aren't as natural as I would like. *smiles*) As a result, I adore artists that are truly creative, who think outside the box, who can see things where others can't...

Part II coming soon!
smiles,
christi

Random Ramblings...

This is not the post that I had planned for today, but as the day is quickly slipping away, I think that I should do what I can for today. Just some random thoughts and projects for today...

Today is upload day for the first installment of the art inspiration blog. This is the layout that I came up with from the art piece. This was a tough piece for me, but it turned out really well I think...dare I say it, maybe even a bit artsy??? Photo of the kids from Sept 3...neither of them look particularily happy, but I still like the photo. The papers are Creating Keepsakes. The stamps (You & Me) are Inque Boutique. The rub-on border is Daisy D's.


This second layout is a layout that I had done for a Rusty Pickle contest (it didn't win.) The papers are the Rusty Pickle Mayflower line and the photos are from our vacation last summer.


This is a card that I just made simply because I wanted to use this new stamp from Stampendous. The papers are some of the Amy Butler K&Co line.


And this kid is the reason that time is short today. This was him as he left for school today. Today is their first soccer game and this is what the team wears on game-day. Wow! Can you believe how grown-up he looks?!?!


That's it for today! I will be back tomorrow...
smiles,
christi

Final Creative Inspiration & {21} Days...

Well, here is my final piece in my series of finding creative inspiration from other things. One of the most fun places to look for inspiration in clothing. Girls, here is your excuse to go shopping...you are just looking for inspiration. ;) Personally I keep a file on my computer that I have labeled as creative muse that I copy jpegs from websites of cute clothes, color combinations, etc that I can use to inspire me later.

For today's project, I went to my daughter's closet because baby clothes have amazing details that can be so inspiring. These are 2 outfits that I have bought recently and I was struck by the color combination. I love that teal blue & purple combo so I copied it on my project. I also liked the little butterfly and it worked with the theme of my project.


The project that was inspired by these clothes is an altered journal for the upcoming {21} day challenge that Rhonna's hosting. It's a 7 gypsies 6x10 journal and the papers are DCWV & Making Memories.

I have had a lot of fun doing this series and giving you a bit of insight into where I find creativity. Hopefully, it has helped you to see the creative possibilities of the world around you...

Now on to the {21} day challenge that Rhonna is hosting. For those of you that have never heard of this, she has done 8 editions of this series before. I have participated in 3 of them including the first which you can see on my blog in the archives starting here.

The premise behind the challenge is that it takes 21 days of doing something to make it a habit and by creating an art journal while changing that habit, you are also making it a habit to create everyday which in turn, boosts your creativity. I LOVE these challenges. You can read more about it on Rhonna's site. The new challenge will start this weekend, the 15th. I will tell you more about my habits to change tomorrow.
smiles,
christi